People of the World, Unite to Defeat the US-UK Invasion and Occupation of Iraq!

-- Statement by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

24 March 2003 

The long-announced crime has begun as hundreds of thousands of US aggressor troops storm into Iraq with their ever-faithful UK partners scurrying along. An unprecedented air attack is battering Baghdad. Yet far from cowering in “shock and awe” at the invincibility of US imperialism, people all over the world are filled with anger at these crimes and rising up in fierce and determined struggle.

 The aggressors lash out, murder and maim; they are vicious enemies. But they can be defeated because they create ever more powerful armies of their own gravediggers, just as they are doing today on a worldwide scale. This is why Mao Tsetung long ago pointed out that, despite their very real and vicious teeth, “imperialism and reactionaries are paper tigers”.

 Even before the war started, the determined struggle of the people of all countries ripped the UN fig-leaf off the US war plans and tore off its cloak of “victim of September 11”, leaving Bush and his gang exposed and extremely isolated. The mask of democracy covering the imperialist dictatorships in Britain, Spain, Italy and other countries has become severely tattered as the rulers trample on the clear will of the vast majority. Puppet regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere are shaken and weakened. RIM salutes all those who have participated in this great and unprecedented mass movement on every continent—you have already changed history, but we have far more difficult battles ahead.

 In launching the desperate Iraq gamble despite his isolated and exposed position, George Bush and his reactionary circle have placed a great challenge before us. They hope that with a quick victory they can roll over all opposition, recover their losses and get back on their path of remodelling the whole Middle East to serve the interests of US world domination. But if they are unable to accomplish this quick victory, if their invasion and occupation lead to protracted resistance from the people everywhere, if the plans for the “Greater American Middle East” are ultimately defeated, it will be a great victory for the people and will drive the progress of the whole world revolution forward.

 The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is the embryonic centre of the world’s Maoist forces. Parties of our Movement are present in a number of the key arenas of today’s struggle. It is a source of pride to our Movement that our comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, are waging a courageous and daring fight in the very belly of the imperialist beast, uniting with and leading an important section of the American people to oppose and resist the war of aggression being waged in their name. In Turkey and the northern Kurdistan area, the Maoist Communist Party is taking up the fight against the invasion and occupation of Iraq as part of the Party’s efforts to intensify the armed resistance it has long been waging against the reactionary Turkish state. In Iran, where US troops are now on the border and which Bush has announced as one of the next victims of his crusade, comrades of the Communist Party of Iran MLM are hard at work preparing for the conflicts looming ahead in that country. The Communist Party of Afghanistan, working under conditions of US military occupation, is holding the red flag high and developing the programme and methods necessary to carry the resistance to a new level. In these countries and many others all over the world, parties, organisations and sympathisers of RIM are joining with the swelling current of people’s resistance, fighting to build and strengthen Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organisations, and preparing new leaps in the people’s revolutionary struggle.

 All those who are looking for a real way to overthrow the system of imperialism need to seriously come to grips with the revolutionary worldview, politics and approach of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

 As the imperialist system spews forth a new torrent of reactionary violence, repression, terror and death, cast your eyes to the Himalayas where, in the words of the Internationale, “A better world’s in birth!” Starting only in 1996 with a few rifles captured from the enemy, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a participating RIM party, a powerful people’s army has been built up, the great bulk of the countryside has been liberated and political power has been placed in the hands of the peasants, new traditions and culture are flourishing, and virtually the whole society has been united in support of the revolutionary cause.  

The history of imperialism has been the history of the rise and collapse of successive empires. The British Empire once ruled half the world. France ruled much of Africa and the Middle East, but was defeated in Vietnam and Algeria. Hitler captured most of Europe and declared a “thousand year Reich” that quickly collapsed when faced with the determined resistance of the Soviet Union. Japan set up an empire controlling China and most of East Asia. Yet the sun has set on all these empires. The future of the US imperialist empire is no exception -- it too is headed for extinction.

 But history has to be made by the proletariat and the people. The imperialists will never listen to reason and they will never voluntarily step out of the way of humanity’s progress. Their system is based on sucking the life and labour out of people all over the world, and they can only preserve this “paradise” through violent assault combined with sugar-coated deception. The struggle will no doubt be difficult. The stage has been set for a great drama. Now is the time for heroes.

 People of the World, Unite to Defeat the US-UK Aggression and Occupation of Iraq!

Peoples of the Middle East, Take Destiny into your own Hands!

Look to the Himalayas, a Better World’s in Birth!

Long Live Proletarian Internationalism—Long Live RIM!